Online tools to increase efficiency

Posted November 29, 2016

We’ve all heard that saying “there’s not enough hours in the day”, and for most people at work this feels like a reality. With the complex nature of business, we are always striving to become more efficient in the work place.

Technology has continued to impact our lives greatly, and it is now helping us improve our efficiency. Let’s take a look at our top 5 online tools to increase efficiency in the workplace.

Trello

Trello is a great visual tools for when you manage a multitude of different projects. By creating different ‘boards’, you are able to assign specific roles to team members, and create ‘lists’ to easily track the progress of the card. Trello also enables all team members to be accountable for their tasks, and see clearly any deadlines that may be in place. The great thing about Trello is that it allows you to be as simplistic or elaborate as you wish.

Evernote

Do you ever have the problem of jotting something down and then having to look through piles of paper to find it? Well Evernote may be your saviour. Evernote is essentially a productivity tool to keep all your notes in one place. You can then access this from anywhere you go, allowing you to search for your text, images and documents. It also allows you to share with anyone you wish.

Google Drive

Google Drive is an effective tool for sharing and editing documents with team members from any location. It also lets employees leave notes and comments within a document, and has a ‘live editing’ capability.

Google Drive has continued to improve with new storage features. One that’s particularly useful is Drive for Android, which allows you to scan all your paperwork by snapping a photo of documents such as receipts, letters and statements. They are then stored on Drive instantly as a PDF – a way great to keep all your documents together and orderly.

Toggle

If you are really trying to get to grips with time management and you want to understand how long each task takes to complete, then Toggle can be a simple way to track your time. You can then view reports to understand what takes the most time for various tasks and projects, enabling you to manage your time efficiently and increase productivity.

IFTTT

If part of your employees’ role is the same process on repeat, then If This Then That (IFTTT) could be a useful tool to automate processes. This app is particularly good for automating social media platforms. For example, if someone manually tweets from your blogs or regularly adds photos of events to Facebook, then using IFTTT can help you have more control, while managing your social media presence much more efficiently, which can be particularly useful for small business owners.

These are just some of the great online tools on offer, but there are plenty of other tools out there to help you maximise your productivity and make you more efficient – allowing you to work smarter, rather than work longer.

What tools do you use in your company for efficiency? Tweet us at @kingstonsmith and join the conversation.